Cattedrale di Maria SS. di Romania

Follow the call of the bells to the ancient heart of Tropea: the Cathedral of Maria SS. di Romania, a Norman co-cathedral founded in the 12th century, around 1163. Its stones have watched eight hundred years of fishermen, processions and prayers pass by. Inside it guards the Byzantine icon of the Madonna of Romania, patron saint of the town, an ancient face before which the people of Tropea have knelt for generations. But lift your eyes, deckhand: hanging on the walls like strange votive offerings rest two aircraft bombs from the Second World War. They fell on Tropea in 1943 and never exploded. The locals swore it was the Madonna of Romania who stilled them, and ever since they remain there, intact, recalling a day of terror turned into a miracle. Elena Greco stops right in front of those two silent bombs and understands something written in her grandfather's diary: certain things cross the centuries without a scratch, as if protected. If two devices could stay whole and mute, why not a Silver Lantern lit centuries ago upon the rock? Visit with respect: this is an active place of worship, dress modestly, keep your voice low, and pause a moment under the cool naves before stepping back into the sun.